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Pearl MSH10 MS Stereo Microphone - Review

A couple of weeks ago I finally received the Pearl MSH10 MS stereo microphone. They are handmade, so the lead time on them can take a while.

The microphone came in a lovely wooden box engraved with the Pearl logo and the model. The mic was in a silk pouch and also in the box was a Rycote InVision shockmount, and a test sheet signed by an engineer. The Rycote was a great surprise, and will definitely be utilised.

I also ordered a Rycote Kit 2 windjammer system, ConBox and a Duo Lyre system (required as the mic is pretty thick). The fantastic guys at Pinknoise Systems put this all together for me so I didn’t even need to set anything up.

The build quality is excellent and really has a quality, handmade feel to it. The coating is black with silver mesh. It is slightly longer than my MKH-8060 but the diameter at 28mm is quite a bit larger and definitely warrants the Rycote Duo Lyre’s I ordered.

I wanted to do a sound test as soon as possible so got my Sound Devices 744 out and put the mic on the balcony of my apartment. The sound quality is fantastic, really gave me a good stereo image of the traffic outside and was picking up all sorts of subtle sounds, from car horns to babies crying in other apartments. I then took it back inside and was pleasantly surprised at the very low self-noise.

I arranged to meet another sound recordist and we took a trip to a local beach to test it out there. He was also very impressed with the mic. The sounds of the waves were really clear, but there was so much other sound around it was impossible to get a clean recording. We also tested it out on some trees with birds and the clarity was stunning.

I have since used the mic on a job that took me up into the mountains of Fujairah, in the north of the UAE. We were filming up a mountain at 5am, so managed to get some great early morning sounds, roosters were in abundance! I also managed to get some night time ambience, but as it’s the summer here now, it’s very warm so there are less creatures about. I’ll have to go back and try again when it’s cooler.